Sacred 2 Review
Buggin' out.
Version tested: Xbox 360
Around 15 hours into Sacred II, I check my stats. 2186 enemies defeated. 43 quests completed. 8.4 per cent of the main quest completed. 4.9 per cent of the map revealed.
A rough calculation based on those figures puts the full game's completion time at somewhere around 180 hours. That figure is a little misleading as I've probably been shirking some of the main storyline quests, instead cleaning up all of the side quests in each area before moving on. But you get the idea: a huge amount of content has been squeezed into Arcania's extensive environment.
That's before you take into account the six different classes and the fact four of these can partake in the light or shadow campaigns. Each campaign has a specific class, and each moral extremity offers exclusive content in the form of skills, quests and equipment. That's a lot of rat-punching, kobold-poking and spider-troubling. There's even an achievement, ‘Extremely Diligent', for completing only 40 per cent of the side quests.
This approach doesn't always seem like the best idea, though. It often feels as though quantity has been prioritised over quality in Sacred 2. Much was said about the original game's bugginess when it first hit PC, and many of those issues have been addressed here - but the lack of optimisation is still painfully obvious.
Frame-rate is the first casualty, especially when zooming out and stuttering through camera sweeps with obvious tearing in full effect. Character animations are jumpy and unnatural. The Shadow Warrior looks like Benny Hill during a dark costume phase, chasing scantily-clad high-elf nurses around. The Seraphim's half-catwalk, half-post-enema strut makes her repeated declarations that she has ‘Done my doody' all the funnier.

"I told you, the costume’s extra. You owe me 200 quid and a hot shower."
There are problems with aggro too. Some mobs casually saunter past before suddenly noticing you once you're half a screen away, by which time you're probably at enough distance to keep on running, forsaking the single XP which many of the opening areas' monsters offer.
At the other end of the scale are the frustrating escort missions. Never my favourite task, Sacred 2's escorts reach a new level of frustration thanks to incredibly bold NPC's. Even the meekest of maidens hurl themselves into groups of slavering monsters, only to realise how much shinola they're in and race back to you - often being cut down in the process.
As these are non-essential quests there's no option to redo them, unless you've had the presence of mind to save first. Targets for these quests are often annoyingly far away, too - they propel you into new areas but offer all the more opportunities for suicide runs from your frisky charges.

You, bear - axe somebody!
A general lack of polish pervades in Sacred 2. Every time I switched to a ranged weapon - using the innovative and otherwise effective face-buttons, modified by a triggers system -then tried to switch back to my main weapon choice of sword and shield (mapped to an unmodified A button), the unwanted bow, staff or energy pistol stuck in my hands. Even worse my character then became inexplicably rooted to the spot, refusing to move until I'd flashed up either the map or one of the menus. It's no gamebreaker, but it almost turned me into a discbreaker.
A lot has been made of Sacred's 2's humour, and a few lines of dialogue do raise a chuckle. However, as Will pointed out in his PC review, the quirky comments soon become grating rather than amusing. There are some nice cultural references here but many feel shoehorned in. When thrown together with some emo-goth babbling of the highest order about the power of trees and the mystical nature of being, it all makes for an awkward mix.
For a game which often has its forked green tongue firmly in cheek, there's a lot of traditional fantasy questing to be done here. I've spent most of my time killing set numbers of enemies, collecting lost items, delivering messages and rescuing a surprising number of wayward children.
But attacking Sacred for its bread-and-butter fantasy roots would be unfair. It offers some interesting new takes on the genre, such as the consistent mix of hi-tech and medieval elements - realised most obviously by the Temple Guardian and Stargate-style projectile staffs. The fact Sacred 2 is in many ways a very traditional game is not a bad thing. However, many of the traditions it carries on would have been better scrapped.
Aside from the legions of formulaic questlines, there's also the time-old issue of female characters' attire. I'm no prude, and have a healthy appreciation of the female form, but much of the pathos parts of the game tries to imbue is lost because half the characters look like malnourished strippers on their way to a bondage convention. All the shoes and boots which I came across for female classes were high-heeled, and a great deal of their 'armour' consists of tiny skirts, plunging halter-neck tops and throbbing, six-bladed sex toys.
All right. Not sex toys, and doubtless this sort of thing will attract as many - if not more - as it repels. But it does feel like time we graduated from the T ‘n' A school of fantasy. The fact that much of the character art feels like it was churned out by a talented and priapic 14 year-old detracts from much of the other pretty and imaginative design.

Colder than a witch’s tit. At least they get proper robes.
Fields of flowers and grass dominate the first areas along with golden beaches, murky caves and ruined temples. Typical fantasy fare, but well drawn and executed. The architecture often conveys a real sense of place. Enemy models are detailed and charismatic up-close, although there's a lack of variation between species. Zooming right in gives you a chance to admire these well-drawn models and smoothes the frame-rate a little, but restricts the range of your vision to the point where you'll miss a great deal.
For a game so firmly aimed at loot whores there's a shocking lack of inventory management options. The dozens of shinies you'll end up carrying cannot be rearranged, even manually. Despite a relatively reliable 'autoequip' function the reams of stats and bonuses conveyed by each piece remain a dark science - upon which neither the manual nor the scattered tutorials deign to shed any light.
Buying new equipment from a merchant is a massive pain too. There's no way to easily compare the gear on offer with what you're currently wearing - a basic function of RPG equipment management. What could have possessed Ascaron not to include such an important feature in a game so keen to encourage cramming your skimpy metal bikini with junk?

The final of the Strictly Come Giant Invertebrate Dancing was closer than you might imagine.
If you're a real loot addict, looking for a quick fix before Diablo 3 turns you into a precious-hoarding, daylight-shunning, subterranean Gollum, there are worse options than Scared 2. It presents you with a giant world, one that has some unique aspects and is generally seamless and deep. With patience, tolerance and a willingness to ignore all the problems and the awkward hokum, there are dozens - if not hundreds - of hours of playtime on offer.
Doubtless some will take up that offer, and will sink huge swathes of time into exploring every nook and cranny of this lush and vibrant world. Sadly, others will find it too hard to see past the pop-in, framerate, poor animation and niggling bugs. Had Ascaron reigned in the content a little, and polished a smaller game to a higher standard, the score below would have been at least a couple of marks higher.
6 / 10
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Comments (55) Latest comment 2 years ago
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Yes. Sacred 2 (the PC version) is quantity over quality, unfortunately. Love the genre, but S2 failed to really grab me.
As for doing all the sidequests, though - you shouldn't. You'll level far beyond an area's requirements if you do this. The tons of sidequests are so that you can do different ones (although they all reappear, of course) on the next playthrough on a then unlocked difficulty level. If the mobs in an area have a green circle around them, it's high time to move on.
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''The PlayStation 3 version supports drop-in/drop-out multiplayer gaming for up to four players via internet, and two player full-screen gaming on one console
Multiplayer modes include co-op campaign and PVP
The controls and interface have been developed from scratch for the PlayStation 3 version to ensure fluid and intuitive PS3 gameplay throughout differences between versions''
IGN also says that PS3 version has the prettiest version so would love to know all the differences explained.
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Just had a 4 hour session of online coop with my friend last night (now discovered 2% of the world map...). Absolutely awesome, this is one of the most fun games we've both played in a long while. The world is absolutely huge, theres so much to do. Granted the isometric hack'n'slash genre is a very niche one, but if you've enjoyed anything like Diablo, Titan Quest or Sacred 1 then this is a no brainer. They've done a really good job of converting the interface over to the gamepad. Can be a slight fiddle at first but once you get the hang of it you'l have no problems. Visually the game looks super pretty, its not graphically going to blow you away on a technical stand point but the colours, variety of armour and effects look really nice.
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I know. You should definently buy it.
Bionic Commando is more my kind of game i believe. Bought it last week.
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Does local coop work ok? Is it rubbish? Is it non-existant because it's not mentioned in the review?!
Can anyone else shed any light on this?
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From other reviews thats one of the highpoints.
"Sacred 2 turns out to be a great couch game, largely because you can play co-op with a friend at your side" 1UP.
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I guess I'll have to hunt around for a more useful review, although in general it doesn't sound like it's any real improvement over the dodgy PC version.
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Crikey, that must have completely passed me by, don't remember hearing about that. :-/
@miiiguel:
Strange, isn't it? I mean, I thought BG1/2 were passable, but she totally loved them. That and beat-em-ups, where she usually wipes the floor with me.
@muscleblade:
Aha, excellent! Thank you, kind Sir. I shall go and read the 1UP review.
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Don't know with this one though it's released the same day as Star Ocean on the 360 and being a massive rpg fan don't know which one to get.
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Oh, and my sis-in-law is also REALLY into that sort of game, and she's playing Sacred 2 with my bro in co-op on the PC.
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On the PC version I dropped it quickly tbh since it becomes obvious quite quickly that you have to like the feel and system. A mate of mine happens to do and still plays it.
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"Hi,
Right now there really is not much news to give. We made the patch and send it to the publishers and microsoft. And as soon as they are done with the testing, the publishers decide when it will be online. If nothing unexpected comes up, I expected this to happen very soon now. But right now I don't have any update on this yet. Sorry."
http://fo rum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php...
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Sit on the couch with a friend or girlfriend, and drink beers...
Cheap through Play-Asia too....
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I couldn't disagree more - the genre is called fantasy after all
As for Sacred 2, I bought the PC version on Steam around a month ago, but unlike the original Sacred and other fairly recent "Diablo clones" like the excellent Titan Quest + expansion, it unfortunately didn't manage to hold my attention for more than a few hours - although I won't entirely rule out I could feel tempted to give it another shot at some point.
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Bit strange the review hasn't mentioned anything about the multiplayer aspect.
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The mental image, like broken glass in my brain! XO
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Back home over the summer nothing like a multiplayer hack and slash
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O, and having played the PC version i can say that this game has nothing on it's competitors, unless a disjointed experience is your thing and immersion means nothing to you.
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I think I'm going to keep this on pre-order; hopefully the patch will be out soon so save corruptions will be fixed, this still sounds like it'll be a fun jaunt with the wife.
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Do I buy this?
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Edit: I just read the comment above. Funny how people compare Diablo, Sacred, etc. with Baldur's Gate. It's like asking: I adore soccer, should I start playing tennis?
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"Been playing this with my wife. It's almost like Baldur's gate on the PS2/XBOX1"
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It is also stated on the board that most of the bugs can be avoided by simply installing the game on the harddrive. But of course Dan has already tried that in his utter brilliance, or not?
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Otherwise I have had my eye on this game for sometime now, Isn't it 4 player co-op online? If so, I can see plenty of fun to be had, I've seen the map and it's huge, choc full of quests, oh yeah, and err, class mounts xD
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Firstly: I can't tell what kind of game this is. There are references (loot whore, RPG, escort missions) that gives me vague references, but it does not explain to me whatsoever what i will be doing in the game, or how this is done or presented. Is it realtime? Is there any co-op? Is it all offline? Are there pickupnplay aspects outside of the main (single?) story arc? Is there any character building? What about levelling and itemisation? Reviewer mentions predefined characters - am I forced to play through these or are they customisable to some degree? What are these characters?
Secondly: The reviewer takes a position that requires me to have played (or read reviews of) PC version of game or several other games. It would have taken perhaps two paragraphs to tell me A. the main story B. rundown of characters C. a brief discussion of mechanics.
Summing up, I feel no more enlightened after reading this review than I was before. I know virtually nothing about the gameplay, the experience, the graphics (other than cheap quips and trying to decipher screenshots supposedly selected to support further quipping), or the mechanics of play. Disappointing!
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I did an install to HDD and I've had no problems with load times and very, very few issues with framerates. The game did install a patch via Live upon first starting up so maybe they've fixed both those issues and the corrupt Save problem (here's hoping).
This is a game for fans of those old skool hack'n'slash RPG collectathons - if loot's your thing, stat managing rings your bell and you can't resist the lure of a nearby dungeon just screaming out to be plundered - congratulations, you just found a new best way to watch your weekends and evenings disappear down a very engrossing timesink.
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I don't feel like I should have to research the PC version just to understand a review for a different platform.
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